Demodulation of a channel is an indispensable step during communication. Typically a channel is demodulated with a received pilot. Before the pilot is received, it is necessary to know port numbers and the number of ports for the pilot so that the pilot is received at a corresponding location. A pilot includes a common pilot (e.g., a Cell Reference Signal (CRS)) and a dedicated pilot (e.g., a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS)).
With a pilot being a CRS, the number of ports for the CRS can be obtained by receiving broadcast information. All of relay nodes and User Equipments (UEs) in a cell adopt the same pilot for channel demodulation, and there is a problem that a specific node or equipment cannot be configured separately with a CRS.
With a pilot being a DMRS, since the DMRS can only be used to demodulate a data channel, port numbers and the number of ports thereof cannot be transmitted over a broadcast channel and currently are transmitted in a control information format of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). However, while a base station (e.g., an evolved Node B (eNB)) transmits a PDCCH to a relay node, the relay node also transmits a PDCCH to a user equipment, so the relay node cannot receive the PDCCH transmitted from the base station and further cannot obtain port information from the PDCCH to demodulate a Relay-Physical Downlink Control Channel (R-PDCCH), etc. In summary, a solution for effectively notifying port information of a DMRS to a relay node has been absent so far so that the relay node cannot receive the DMRS and perform subsequent channel demodulation and further the node cannot be configured separately with a CRS.